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Software

IBM and the healthcare provider CVS Health have announced a collaboration within the Watson Health project, the version of IBM cognitive computing system specializing in the medical field. In this case, it will be used to improve health care services for patients suffering from chronic diseases.

Google continues its initiatives to fight the problem of patent trolling, which is the use of patents for the sole purpose of restricting competition and to obtain money through lawsuits or through agreements following threats of such actions. Recently the company announced the Google Patent Starter Program, an offer to grant some of its patents to some startups that meet certain requirements. One of the conditions is to join for at least two years to the License on Transfer (LOT) Network, an initiative for the exchange of patents created in 2005.

That Adobe Flash wasn’t exactly safe was a known fact. It’s one of those standards that became established for marketing and not technical reasons and keeps on being widely used even if today there are better technologies. However, after leaked documents revealed new vulnerabilities used to take control of other people’s computers, some web giants started taking action against its use. Alex Stamos, the Facebook’s security chief officer, demanded an end-of-life date for Flash. The Mozilla Foundation has gone further and started blocking the use of Flash in its browser Firefox.

The fundraising on the Kickstarter website to finance the development of the video game Shenmue 3, a sequel to the Shenmue RPG series, is having a striking success. The operation is ambitious because the goal was to collect at least two million dollars. Well, that goal was already reached in the first day and at this moment $4,171,576 were pledged by 48,771 backers!

Cisco has announced its intent to buy OpenDNS, an Internet security company that in recent years has focused its activities on the cloud sector. The cost of this acquisition is $635 million in cash and other incentives. Cisco already invested $35 million in OpenDNS just over a year ago. The OpenDNS team will join the Cisco Security Business Group. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2016.